


Clothes Make the Woman

by Sadbhyl



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-21
Updated: 2012-03-21
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadbhyl/pseuds/Sadbhyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A stop on Yemaya requires some special kit .  .  .</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clothes Make the Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Worth_500 community on Livejournal. Originally published July 11, 2004

Um . . .” Mal just stared.

“Well, I . . .” Book seemed equally flustered.

“You . . . you look . . .” Simon finally stuttered into silence.

“Well, damn!” Jayne had no such problem. “Who’da thunk they’d clean up so . . . _Lao tyen yeh_!”

The stop at Yemaya was supposed to be easy money. Get in, trade the medical goods they had for platinum, get out. Milk run.

But the trick with Yemaya was that it was a well-established matriarchal colony, and despite their origins in the inner planets, they took their political structure very seriously. Men didn’t have much say and very little influence on Yemaya. So Mal was out of this one. He’d have to let Zoë handle it.

But a woman of influence didn’t travel alone. Zoë had to have an entourage if she was going to be able to negotiate a decent price for the cargo. An entourage that spoke of power and respectability. An entourage of well-dressed women.

Which led to the men’s current state of incoherency.

Inara had taken Kaylee and River in hand herself, leaving Zoë to her own preparations. Two hours later they had reappeared, transformed.

Zoë was dressed in a white gown edged in thick bands of gold that clung close to her curves, the single sleeve loose and flowing. She wore her hair uncharacteristically loose, pulled back off her face and caught in a simple gold fillet around her forehead to emphasize her dusky skin. Her lips were dark red and her eyes were outlined simply in kohl.

The transformation of the younger girls was even more amazing.

Kaylee had gussied up for that ball on Persephone of course, but that had been without Inara’s expert touch. Now instead of an overabundance of frills, she wore a simple sari, the undershirt in turquoise, the silk in rich coral shot with gold. Her stomach was bared to reveal the turquoise crystal in her navel. Her hair, a paler shade of blonde now that it was clean, was slicked back into a tight knot of braids at her crown. Her mouth was done in coral to match her gown, her eyes powdered in a similar color and highlighted by dark mascara. Gold filigree hung from each ear.

But the greatest transformation was in River. The stray bilge rat of a girl with her heavy boots and scavenged dresses and wild hair was nowhere to be seen. In her place stood an alluring, sensual young woman. Her dark hair had been carefully cleaned and brushed to a luster that rivaled Inara’s before being curled and carefully pinned atop her head in such a way that it looked as though it could come down at any moment but which Mal suspected could withstand re-entry. Her eyes were lined black and dusted silver, a single clear crystal set at the inner corner of each. Her cheekbones looked as though they had been carved from alabaster and brushed with rose petals, while her mouth was now full and pouty in brilliant crimson. The black and silver of her gown made her pale skin glow. And there was a lot of it to see. The neckline plunged to her navel, while the shoulders were actually near translucent scarves which hung down her bare back and past her waist, disguising the line of the skirt that hung temptingly low on her rump. One cut crystal teardrop hung on a long silver chain, drawing the eye down between the soft curves of her cleavage. She looked. . . she was just . . . Mal still couldn’t find the words.

Inara could. “Aren’t they lovely?” She beamed over them in pride. “And River did most of hers herself. She watched and listened as I worked with Kaylee, and then she chose her dress and did her hair herself. She has a real gift.”

Mal could see most of her gifts. “Um . . .”

River studied him, her eyes knowing. “Perhaps the captain isn’t entirely comfortable seeing us like this,” she said in a soft, cultured voice more reminiscent of Inara than her own. “We wouldn’t want to endanger our future working relationship by providing too much of a distraction.”

It might just have been his hormones talking, but he could swear the girl was flirting with him . . .

“Not rightly sure how comfortable _I_ am with it,” Jayne groused. “Just seems unnatural somehow.”

Wash wrapped his arms around Zoë from behind, resting his chin on her bare shoulder. “You’ve just never had a chance to savor her more womanly delights.”

“And you never will,” she replied dangerously, cutting off Jayne’s response.

“Well, Inara had good material to work from,” Shepherd said gallantly, taking Kaylee by the hand. “This is just gilding the lily.”

Kaylee blushed. “It’s okay? I feel kind of like, I don’t know, like I’m dressing up in my mama’s clothes.”

“Your mama never had nothin’ that looked _that_ good,” Jayne said, his own odd sort of compliment.

“What do you think, Simon?” River asked, her quavery little girl voice back as she spun around, the scarves rising to reveal her bare shoulder blades, threatening to dislodge the whole creation.

He caught her hands with a smile. “I think you’re beautiful, bebe. I’m afraid to touch you for fear of mussing you.”

“Silly!” She threw her arms a round him and hugged him close, her face lit with happiness.

“Mal?” Inara’s voice broke through his dazed senses.

“Uh-huh?”

“You should close your mouth,” she said softly, her slender fingers lifting his chin. “You don’t want to attract flies.”


End file.
